Banks reported a drop in mortgage-banking income during the second quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports from 26 major public companies. But virtually all of the decline came from the four too-big-to-fail banks with over $1 trillion in assets, while regionals posted a substantial increase in mortgage-banking profits. As a group, the 26 banks earned $3.12 billion from mortgage banking during ... [Includes one data chart]

Panorama Point Partners this summer participated in what it calls a “significant” capital raise for Alterra Home Loans, a Las Vegas-based nonbank started by Hispanic-Americans that’s been on a production tear the past four years, growing originations by upwards of 250 percent every 12 months. If all goes well, AHL hopes to fund $1.3 billion of residential mortgages in 2016, 70 percent of it to minorities, a large chunk of them Hispanics. In short, Alterra sees gold in ...

Most lenders welcome mortgage technology and innovation, but they are divided when it comes to embracing Uber-like industry-wide disruptions, according to new research from Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group. “Today’s consumers access myriad products and services via digital platforms that make it more efficient, simple and pleasant to conduct their business,” said Katrina Jones, vice president of single-family business solutions at ...

Officials at a number of lenders that have significantly increased their business in recent years point to efforts regarding corporate culture as a key factor in the companies’ success. Kurt Reisig, the founder of American Pacific Mortgage, a retail-only lender, said that since starting an effort to focus on corporate culture, APM has doubled its origination volume in the past two years and went from 800 employees to more than 2,000. “Culture eats strategy for lunch every day,” ...

The dramatic expansion of the credit box for loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the first quarter of this year held steady in the second quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-backed securities data. In the first quarter, the share of purchase loans sold to the government-sponsored enterprises with credit scores ranging from 620 to 699 jumped by nearly 7 percentage points to 21.4 percent. The low-score share ... [Includes one data chart]

In the next year or so, a changing environment will remain the norm in the mortgage industry, where participants can expect impending interest-rate increases, new product offerings, increasing competition, new servicing business models, and continued regulatory scrutiny, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study. To address flat production volume and shrinking margins, lenders will need to cross-sell products, and concentrate on reducing ...

GSE guaranty fees more than doubled from 2011 to 2015, increasing from an average of 26 basis points in 2011 to 56 basis points in 2015, according to a new report published this week. That sharp increase has prompted trade and community groups to lobby for lower fees. However, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt said this week that the current charges “strike the right balance, between safety and soundness and liquidity in the housing finance market,” according to a reply letter he sent to the Center for Responsible Lenders, Mortgage Bankers Association and a host of others seeking a fee reduction. In the FHFA’s annual report to Congress on guaranty fees...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac processed a huge increase in single-family business through their mortgage-backed securities platforms in July, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis and ranking.Total single-family MBS issuance hit $83.27 billion in July, a solid 9.3 percent increase from the June. It was the biggest monthly output for the two GSEs since August 2013, when they had a combined $98.83 billion in single-family MBS issuance. Most of the gain came from a 15.3 percent jump in purchase-mortgage business in July. But the flow of refinance loans also increased, by a more modest 3.6 percent, from the previous month.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is well along on planning a replacement program for underwater mortgages with an announcement coming “relatively soon,” Freddie Mac CEO Donald Layton said this week. The successor program will be a “relief refinance” initiative, he said in an interview with Inside The GSEs, noting the borrower will be able to refinance “without going through a full new regular credit process.” Layton added that mortgage professionals should think of the new effort as a cousin to the Home Affordable Refinance Program, which is set to expire at the end of the year. There are approximately 325,290 borrowers still eligible for a refinance under the HARP initiative, according to FHFA’s figures.

Corona Asset Management XVIII won Fannie Mae’s fourth Community Impact Pool of nonperforming loans. Last week’s announcement represented the first time that the pool was sold to a private equity firm instead of a nonprofit group. The Community Impact Pool is structured to encourage nonprofits, as well as smaller investors and minority- and women-owned businesses. It’s designed to include geographically focused, high-occupancy collateral where bidders have a longer than usual time to participate in hopes of attracting diverse participation. Fannie began marketing this particular pool to possible bidders back in June with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and CastleOak Securities, L.P.